Tantus wrote:Can we agree a paragraph in SL is 850 characters(without spaces), before a viewer cuts to the next paragraph. It gives you a definition for semi-para(anything less than 850 characters), double and triple paragraph emotes!

Qingwen wrote:In my original reply I asked what you meant by "good ol'Gorean roleplay with a slave or two", and why that would be considered downtime (if that is indeed how you meant it). I've played the mistress role plenty of times too and I know how demanding roleplay with a slave or two can be. I've also led storylines for a group - not a whole lot different.

It is just that, recreational roleplay. I would personally see it as downtime if my character was involved in it.

All roleplay is recreational - if I'm burned out by a long stint of some demanding role, personally I go do something entirely different. I'm not a good writer when I'm drained. My concern would be that - lacklustre RP. When playing slave role, sadly, we get a lot of that, uninteresting fluff in between when the FM and FW players are waiting for their epic RP to start, at which point slave is sent to do chores so she doesn't overhear (and cannot participate). This may be a possible explanation why you're not seeing sterling performances from slave characters. Would you feel enthused and energised if constantly sent from the scene to RP with a virtual bucket and mop? If anyone did that to me in a scene then came back later for IC recreation, I'd toss em NPC slavegirl #5 and wish them a pleasant evening.

Glaucon, you had yet to convince me how I can express the humiliation that my slave character, formerly a FW of high red caste and and high station, feels in some situations... In 2 lines of dialog with 2 or 3 words of facial expression, sorry, but I don't know how to express, when she is given a command, which is truly demeaning, how she experiences humiliation, how she struggles (or is she troubled?) why she feels that way, how she performs the command, why she perform the command instead of rebelling, the way she performs it (properly, badly, horribly, perfectly, etc). There are also the motions of her body, the way her face betrays her emotions at complying to her owner's instructions, etc etc...Let's tell that if the scene occurs in a public area, even if my partner and I are the only players, there is an environment to create with NPC people around.

Tantus wrote:We roleplay with different perspectives. If I was to respect everyone's assumed background, then I'd have to accept BTB'ers from Torvaldsland being the fierce warriors they all want to portray. Likewise for assassins, for warriors, and just about anyone strapped with a sword. Either you will understand why I would post a 'lol' to this, or you won't.

But if people portray their role properly, why wouldn't you accept their background? If the Torvalslander guy shows that he is credible in his role, if his avatar looks like a warrior from the Torvaldsland, after just one good post, why would you refuse to acknowledge his background?

Tantus wrote:IC'ly, my character is calculating enough to know this appointment would cause him more issues than solve them. So he ends it there. He'd need to be an idiot to say 'You're hired! Go out there and start pissing people off who're all going to run back to me."

I still think you choose the easy way. I can understand your point if the guy is a lame rper. It,s one thing to be corrupt and abuse of your authority, it's another one to play such an IC personality in a way which will entertain people, not piss them OOCly because the whole character is just a joke.

Tantus wrote:I do infact roleplay with slaves too! And those I encounter have no issues in how I roleplay with them. However, during a time-limited IC meeting I prefer not to have extras in that session roleplaying about themselves.

I understand your point, but I see things differently. This slave player might be the only real interesting element in your time-limited IC meeting, at the end Imagine, you get 1:30 of IC meetings with 3 borings guys and surprise, the slave player is the only one whose RP adds the touch of fun, of excitation, to your whole scene and save you from falling asleep on your keyboard...! Then, you discovered a new potential RP partner, with whom, maybe, you will be able to start another story.

Tantus wrote:I totally agree there should be a balance. Through my observations, it tends to swing towards inactivity than any leadership at all. People only want the tags for a list in their profile, "I've been the Head something of this city and the Chief whatever of that city" Then spend the remainder of their tenure inactively.

If an IC leader needs to make a choice, it should be the sim over his slave or FC. As harsh as this sounds, when people make the wrong choice their sims fall apart soon after.

I don't think it should, actually. The player should commit to his RP partners (FC, slave or rest of the sim because he has a leadership position) following his mood and the RP priorities. Sure that if he is a praetor who has to decide if such FW will be collared or not, when the FW is waiting for he states on her case, when her player is online and in jail, it's rather polite to make her a priority since her own RPwill be totally impacted by the decision that will be taken. Especially if she is in jail (with no many opportunities of interacting with people...)

Tantus wrote:My problem with scribes now, are the amount of them carrying around Gorean Campus certificates. When it all started, Janice(?) had a focus on IC/OOC separation for the purpose of roleplaying trials. Which is all well and good, except now so many of them are using their OOC certificates as IC accreditation.

And then you have the 'wandering magistrate/advocate' with GC certification to back them up.

All these certifications are bullshit. First, I don't see why a player with a FW character would be given an accreditation as ambassador or magistrate. These roles are not for female characters, period. Plus, ambassador is a temporary position, granted to specific persons, for a particular mission. Think of Miles of Argentum, General, in Kajira, or to Tarl Cabot, in Raiders...

Tantus wrote:Anyway, I'm all for NC paperwork in roleplay. I know many cities are becoming paperless now, but it takes away from roleplay. It shouldn't all be about slave papers, when you can keep records of debt, trade inventories, taxes, city budgets etc etc. But all of the focus of paperwork always comes back to slave papers, because cities don't have the templates or the initiative to push their scribe roleplay further.

Another reason slaves are a nuisance!

Well, I don't see why the slaves should be the nuisance for something decided by uncreative idiots who play a FM/FW, actually

And I strongly disagree with you, regarding the NC paperwork. I stopped years ago to play a scribe because I was tired of being required to fill NCs, not just for slave papers, for everything.... I considered that I didn't have time to waste, when RPing or just online, at filling notecards.You can emote a contract, you can emote a record of debt, a trade contract, everything, in fact. You don't need to hoard your inventory with that stuff. And believe me, it's totally possible... My characters got FCed with contracts, I got debts, slave papers, etc. Everything emoted when needed. Never a problem. Of course, it takes mature RPers... But none is forced to play with kids....

Sasi wrote:Glaucon, you had yet to convince me how I can express the humiliation that my slave character, formerly a FW of high red caste and and high station, feels in some situations... In 2 lines of dialog with 2 or 3 words of facial expression, sorry, but I don't know how to express, when she is given a command, which is truly demeaning, how she experiences humiliation, how she struggles (or is she troubled?) why she feels that way, how she performs the command, why she perform the command instead of rebelling, the way she performs it (properly, badly, horribly, perfectly, etc). There are also the motions of her body, the way her face betrays her emotions at complying to her owner's instructions, etc etc...

Dunno, I think that is possible. It all depends of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with typing things out large and wide, but it's just a style like any other. It can be fun to be descriptive, but it can also be fun to do faster short form RP from time to time.

Example:"Yes, Master," her voice was filled with humiliation as she, once high caste, crawled over to pick up the whip between her teeth.

I could just as easily write out that same line into a long paragraph of 5 to 10 lines if I felt like it. It all depends on how fast people want the scene to move forward, whether you want to add new hooks or twists, etc.

Sasi wrote:Let's tell that if the scene occurs in a public area, even if my partner and I are the only players, there is an environment to create with NPC people around.

That is true though, even if people might be in one-on-one scenes, they might involve NPC characters who need emoted for. NPC characters are usually what take up a decent chunk of my longer emotes.

In my opinion it goes ideally something like this:

Long paragraph RP:Descriptive emotes: Having to describe the looks, dress, attitude of a character or the surroundings, the decorations of a room, the way a village or street looks. NPCs: There are NPC characters involved in the scene who need emoted for. Often this also includes, at first, describing their looks.

Short / quick emotes:Short conversational emotes: 1-on-1 scenes where there are no NPCs involved or where describing the 'look' of a character or environment for the umpteenth time would just be too much repetition.Group RP: Unless NPCs need emoted for, I'd rather this was done with shorter emotes. I've had plenty of IC meetings, in some cases of up to 10-15 people gathered, in a sim where the norm is long paragraph RP, and it's no fun having to wait indeed to do one emote per hour. Usually the first thing to go is post order, but it would help a lot too if people kept their emotes shorter and don't try to involve or mention -EVERYONE- in their every emote.

It's really hard to set the pace though, sometimes you try to do shorter posts but you still end up having to wait for that stubborn person who insist on taking 10 minutes or more to write their emote and didn't get the clue yet that everyone around them moved on to shorter / faster emoting. (Probably why most people seem to agree that in larger group scenes post order should be neglected).

THAT SAID

The one line shotgun RPers (we find everywhere) are still shitty RPers, often just because they're newbies, not because there is something inherently wrong with one-lining, but because those people usually do it because they don't understand what post order is, or try to make sure everyone gets involved in the RP.

To me it feels like one of those cases where you must first learn to walk before you can run. First people must learn to type longer descriptive emotes and learn to involve and acknowledge everyone in the scene, and once they're more comfortable with that, only after that they should get so brave to try and go shorter.

Qingwen wrote:[When playing slave role, sadly, we get a lot of that, uninteresting fluff in between when the FM and FW players are waiting for their epic RP to start, at which point slave is sent to do chores so she doesn't overhear (and cannot participate).

The slave characters I play are usually sent to do chores way before this point, if I end up with that sortof FM or FW in a scene. NPCs are a wonderful thing.

And it's probably just as well. I do tend to play the kind of characters that will whisper in the right ears and start fucking up people's shit (just like you, Q). Can't be having risk in role play, can we?!

I call my vagina "New Yorker cartoon" because it's dry and a handful of people have laughed at it.

Qingwen wrote:All roleplay is recreational - if I'm burned out by a long stint of some demanding role, personally I go do something entirely different. I'm not a good writer when I'm drained. My concern would be that - lacklustre RP. When playing slave role, sadly, we get a lot of that, uninteresting fluff in between when the FM and FW players are waiting for their epic RP to start, at which point slave is sent to do chores so she doesn't overhear (and cannot participate). This may be a possible explanation why you're not seeing sterling performances from slave characters. Would you feel enthused and energised if constantly sent from the scene to RP with a virtual bucket and mop? If anyone did that to me in a scene then came back later for IC recreation, I'd toss em NPC slavegirl #5 and wish them a pleasant evening.

We find entertainment in different ways. Are you roleplaying for the fine art of emoting? Or have you become less focused on the writing and more interested in inspiring activity.

What I really hate from myself are literal, physical emotes, i.e.*Picks up a hammer and then he turns and selects a nail from the pouch on his table. Raising the nail, he sets the point over the wood. Then hammers at the head until the nail goes in.*

Maybe if I was tired, I might post this piece of 'literal' roleplay. And then I'd read it back and think, 'what the fuck have I done.' This same act could be conveyed through use of metaphors and a whole lot more flourish than the boring piece that was to read. When I am on roleplaying-form, I try to write everything with a style where nothing is literal and one sentence flows into the next. And that becomes creative, recreational roleplay when I do it for the writing. To RP this way, it takes energy and the right RP partner to enter the mode.

In most other instances the writing is irrelevant, the participants are irrelevant. My character is pushing forwards scenes which will come to fruition over the days/weeks ahead and have consequences for other players. That too is entertaining in its own way, even if the emoting wasn't exactly thrilling.

So about that 'scene', I guess we're thinking of different situations. "Good ol'Gorean roleplay" to me, is when a man can focus his RP and attention on a slave, without city politics and IC duties in the way. It's not a bad deal for either of them.

Maybe you are seeing that level of personal roleplay as being less than him involving the same slave, whilst he was at the height of his official duties. But then she'd not have gotten the same depth of undivided RP.